Afghanistan out to inflict more misery on Scotland

Afghanistan will be expected to maintain their perfect record against Scotland when the two sides start their bid to reach the Super 10 stage of the World Twenty20 for the first time on Tuesday.

Scotland have lost all five T20 matches against Afghanistan, which does not bode well for Preston Mommsen's men ahead of their Group B match in Nagpur.

Afghanistan should head into the contest on the first day of the tournament with plenty of confidence on the back of winning 10 of their last 12 matches in the shortest format of the game.

But they failed to qualify for the Asia Cup after being beaten by United Arab Emirates and also missed out on facing the heavyweights of international cricket at the last World T20 in Bangladesh two years ago.

A surprise defeat to Nepal ended their hopes of reaching the Super 10 stage in the 2014 edition and they will need to top a group which also includes Zimbabwe and Hong Kong to advance this time around.

Afghanistan will be looking for wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad to come to the party again after he smashed a magnificent unbeaten century in a hammering of Zimbabwe last month.

Scotland will be looking for the likes of the experience batsman Kyle Coetzer for inspiration in what is their third appearance at a World T20 tournament.

Four consecutive victories enabled Scotland to reach the final of the ICC World T20 qualifiers last year and their ticket to India was booked when the final against Netherlands was washed out.

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